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Friday, August 30, 2013

The Beast by Faye Kellerman (Review and Giveaway)

The Beast

by Faye Kellerman

on Tour August 2013

Title: The BeastAuthor:Faye KellermanPublisher: HarperCollins/William MorrowMystery, ThrillerAbout the book:Over his years with the LAPD, Peter Decker has handled a number of tough cases and strange killers. Few of his previous assignments compare to his latest case—the most bizarre of his storied career.When Hobart Penny is found dead in his apartment, the cops think that his pet cat—an adult female tiger—attacked the reclusive elderly billionaire. But it soon becomes clear that the beast that killed the eccentric inventor is all too human. Digging into the victim’s life, Decker and his colleagues, Detectives Marge Dunn and Scott Oliver, discover that Penny was an exceptionally peculiar man with exotic tastes, including kinky sex with call girls.Following a trail of clues that leads from a wildlife sanctuary in the San Bernardino Mountains to the wild nightlife of Las Vegas, the LAPD detectives are left juggling too many suspects and too few answers. To break open a case involving the two most primal instincts—sex and murder—Decker wrestles with a difficult choice: turning to a man with expert knowledge of both—Chris Donatti, the dangerous man who also happens to be the father of Decker’s foster son Gabriel Whitman, a boy not without his own problems.As their work and intimate worlds collide, Decker and his wife, Rina, find themselves facing tough questions. It just might be that family crises and work-related responsibilities prove too much for Decker’s career. A confluence of ordeals can stress even the most intact of families. And when all these shocking truths comes out, exactly how well will Decker and Rina cope as well as survive?

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My Thoughts: This is the 21st book that Faye Kellerman has written involving Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. The main storyline, the murder of Hobart Penny is very readable and understandable without having read any of the previous books. I do feel that the sub plots - like with Gabe, their foster son, and his girlfriend Yasmine, lost some of the meaning without knowing the background. However, I liked this book so much that there is a very good chance that I will go back and read the series! I really like the author's writing style. It was just very laid back and easy to read. Mr. Penny was so strange that I couldn't wait to see what they would turn up next in their investigation of his murder. Despite his eccentricities though, the motive for his murder wasn't clear to me until the end - as a good mystery should be. I am looking forward to going back into the series and finding out more about Peter and Rina and the detectives Marge and Oliver. I really want to find out more about Gabe and the big trauma that happened with him and Yasmine. With just this little peek in their lives I found these characters to be very believable and likeable. The detectives had an easy camaraderie, and Peter and Rina seem very comfortable in their relationship. The conflict in the storyline is with the murder and everything that surrounded Hobart Penny. (Ok, and a little bit with Gabe and Yasmine, but that wasn't central to the story).

~I received a complimentary eCopy of The Beast from Partners in Crime Blog Tours/Edelweiss in exchange for my unbiased review.~